Bates Motel Is Dreadful, in a Good Way

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Warning: Spoilers ahead, for both Bates Motel and Psycho, even though the statute of limitations on the latter has definitely passed.

I can't remember anticipating a television show the way I have A&E's Bates Motel (Mondays at 10 p.m. ET), which premiered last night. A Psycho origin-story miniseries starring Vera Farmiga and the kid from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, from one of the showrunners of Lost? The premise is too good, and Farmiga's presence feels like a guarantee, like when Dustin Hoffman was on Luck or when Bill Murray shows up at someone's kickball game: They don't need this, so there must be a reason they're here.

Obviously, Bates Motel isn't Psycho. Set in modern times and less Hitchcock than psychosexual drama, the show's most obvious influence is American Horror Story, languishing in dread and inappropriate mother/son relationships. It's easy to imagine the Ryan Murphy version of Bates Motel: Instead of the many close-ups of Vera Farmiga twitching with jealousy when pretty girls try to befriend Norman and the duo's rapid codependence escalation via a disturbing, graphic, and opportunely timed (for Norma's purpose of controlling Norman for the rest of his — okay, her — life) rape scene, one imagines Murphy would have given the audience what they came to see and opened with Norman masturbating to his notebook drawings of Norma. Of course, there are still nine episodes left.

Bates Motel is hyper-aware aware of its strength: spooky moments of catharsis via nostalgia. There's a silhouette of the titular motel, the vacancy sign, the storage of the rapist's shredded body in the shower where Norman would one day stab Janet Leigh while wearing a wig, and dear God, the bed that Norma gleefully plops down on without knowing that her mummified corpse will one day be imprinted there. (Norman, you have to flip the mattress once a year!)

The weakest point of the show is Norman himself, played by Freddie Highmore. He looks uncannily like a younger version of original Norman < target="_blank">Anthony Perkins and has a lot of the same still, uptight energy. But his American accent crackles in and out, and there's a reason there were so many other lead roles in Psycho: It's kind of boring to watch someone be repressed for an hour. Of course, I've only seen the pilot, and I'm excited to watch things start to get weirder as Norma and Norman's relationship evolves — the tender and chilling love declarations on the rowboat they were using to dump the rapist's body was the highlight of the episode — and Norman goes insane. And as Hitchcock knew better than anyone, anticipation is the best part.